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A Study on the Experience of the Visually Impaired In an Effort to Minimize Stereotypic Behaviour through Self-Management: Barriers and
Support
Mohammad Anwar*, Donni Prakosha, Tias Martika
Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia
*E-mail: anwar@fkip.uns.ac.id
Abstract: This study aims to explore aspects that support and hinder the development process of self-management skills for visually impaired children in order to minimize stereotypic behavior that can interfere with the learning process in special schools. There are 30 visually impaired children as the subjects of the research. Data were collected through surveys, semi-structured interviews and they were analyzed by using content analysis methods. The results showed that the cause/inhibitory aspect included a slight stimulus that could be caused by a lack of socialization and social isolation so that the visually impaired seek additional stimuli through repetition of behavior, limited physical activity, and inadequate support/assistance from parents/teachers. While aspects that support the development of self-management for the visually impaired in minimizing stereotypic behavior are the support of school and college facilities, support from peers, and increased awareness of teachers, parents and academics on the important role of self- management for them.
Keywords: stereotypic behaviour, visually impaired, barriers, support
INTRODUCTION
Every child born in the world has advantages and disadvantages. Both advantages and disadvantages in children will have an impact in everyday life. This applies to all children, including children with special needs. Each type of child with special needs also has their own advantages behind the special needs they experience. Visually impaired is one of them.
Visually impaired people are individuals who have lost part or all of their visual abilities and even though they have used special aids but still have obstacles in all aspects of life such as physical, academic, mobility (Anwar, Prakosha, Supriyadi, & Nastiti, 2021). Visually impaired people include total blind individuals and individuals with limited vision that they cannot utilize their remaining visual abilities (Sutjihati, 2012).
The inability/limitation of the visually impaired in seeing causes the appearance to be secondary in terms of academic, social, emotional, and behavioral aspects. Not all of these impacts were investigated. This research is focused on examining the unique behavior of the visually impaired as a result of their special needs. This unique behavior is often referred to as stereotypic behavior. Stereotypic behavior has various forms, for example, eye-pressing behavior, stomping feet, hitting head, swinging hands, leaning body, rubbing eyes, shaking head, shaking body, and so on.
Farran in Tarsidi (2010:15) found that the inability of the visually impaired to adapt to the environment led to social rejection. This social refusal can lead to the behavior of the visually impaired who isolates themselves from the environment, resulting in stereotypic behavior and often performs repetitive and stereotyped play activities. The researchers' preliminary study found that 36.5% (35 children) had severe and disruptive stereotypic behavior, 45.8% (44 children) had low-intensity but still disturbing stereotyped behavior, and 17.7% (17 children)
do not have stereotypical behavior. So it can be concluded that 79 out of 96 children have stereotypical behavior that interferes with the development of social skills and learning success at school. Stereotypic behavior of the visually impaired has an impact on learning activities in the classroom so that the learning outcomes obtained are not optimal.
Stereotypical behavior of visually impaired children tends to be higher in frequency than low vision.
This study aims to explore aspects that support and hinder the process of developing self- management skills for visually impaired children in order to minimize stereotypic behavior that can interfere with the learning process in special schools. So the need for this research is very important and urgent to provide teachers and schools proper data and descriptions as an effort to identify, minimize/reduce, and take appropriate service steps/strategies for the stereotypical behavior of the visually impaired so that the learning process can run well.
This study qualitatively examines two variables, namely barriers and support related to efforts to minimize the stereotypical behavior of the visually impaired. This is in line with the results of research by Okungu, Shirley, & Pogrund (2019) which found that parental support, appropriate learning strategies, and good suggestions can provide significant development of learning potential for the visually impaired. Finally, research found that barriers and supports have an important role in minimizing the stereotypical behavior of the visually impaired.
METHOD
Central Java is one of the provinces in Indonesia that has the most complete special education services for children with special needs and is intended for various types of children with special needs. Including educational services for visually impaired children, in Special Schools (SLB) for the visually impaired, State Special Schools, and inclusive schools. The study population was 96 children with visual impairment who had stereotypical behaviour and 22 teachers who had a bachelor's degree in special education. Sampling used is purposive sampling based on the criteria that have been determined by the researcher. The results of purposive sampling were 30 children with visual impairment and 10 teachers. Only 10 teachers can be used as research subjects since they meet the criteria, namely teachers with special education qualifications with expertise in educational services for visually impaired children. Although the number is only 10, the data from the teacher is sufficient to represent because the data is secondary data used by researchers to support the findings from the primary research data.
The research data was collected by using observation/survey, documentation, and semi- structured interviews. The process of developing the instrument begins with the preparation of a grid that is adapted to the research objectives, then the instrument is tested. The test was conducted to ensure that the instrument is valid and reliable. The validation used was Content validation, appearance validation, and predictive validation. Where the researcher makes judgments to the measurement experts and evaluates learning which is followed by appearance validation process by reading/checking the appearance and language used in the instrument.
As well as predictive validation to be able to provide different values for different individuals based on criteria that have been predicted for the future. Instrument reliability was done by test-retest, equivalent, and a combination of the two. Based on these steps, the research instrument was declared valid and reliable so that it was feasible to be used in research.
Furthermore, the process of analyzing qualitative research data was carried out through data reduction, data presentation, conclusion drawing and data verification.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
This research has succeeded in finding important data related to the types of stereotypic behaviour of the visually impaired, the causes, obstacles and support in an effort to minimize the visually impaired. Of course, to be able to recommend forms of support, it is necessary to know the forms of stereotypic behaviour, the main causes of their behaviour, and the obstacles that have led to efforts to minimize stereotypic behaviour of the visually impaired.
The stereotypic behaviour of people with visual impairment that was found in 30 visually impaired children was quite varied, but eye-pressing behaviour was ranked first with 11 children. Table 1 and 2 are the form and quantity of stereotypical behaviour of the visually impaired description.
Table 1. The form and quantity of stereotypical behaviour of the visually impaired
No Form of Stereotypical Behavior Total
1 Eye Pressing 11
2 Wiping Eyes 7
3 Swinging Hands 4
4 Hitting Head 3
5 Shaking Head 2
6 Leaning Body 2
7 Banging Hands on Table 1
Total 30
Table 2. The average frequency of appearance of stereotypic behavior in 1 lesson hour (30 minutes)
No Form of Stereotypical Behavior Average
1 Eye Pressing 3
2 Wiping Eyes 3
3 Swinging Hands 2
4 Hitting Head 1
5 Shaking Head 2
6 Leaning Body 1
7 Banging Hands on Table 2
Based on the data from the 30 visually impaired people, 7 forms of stereotypic behaviour emerged during the research process. On average, each person with visual impairment has 1 form of stereotypic behaviour. However, it was found that there were 3 research subjects who had more than 1 type of stereotypic behaviour, namely the subject "A8" had the behaviour of pressing the eyes and wiping the eyes, the subject "A21" had the behaviour of wiping the eyes and leaning over, and the subject "A24" had the behaviour between swinging arms and banging hands on the table.
Based on the results of teacher observations and interviews, the stereotypical behaviour of children with visual impairment appears due to several things. Although not all appear at the same time and trigger. These stereotypical behaviours appear when they feel bored, depressed, disappointed, afraid, embarrassed, angry, and their efforts to fill spare time. This finding is in line with the results of Scholl's (2003) research which found that the lack of adequate sensory stimulation so that children use their own bodies for stimulation and activity, this causes the emergence of stereotypic behaviour. Thurrell & Rice in Hallahan and Kauffman (2014) explain that the visually impaired tend to try to overcome the deficiency by stimulating themselves in other ways as a result of the low experience of the sense of sight.
The results also show that the cause/inhibitory aspect includes a small stimulus that can be caused by a lack of socialization and social isolation so that the visually impaired seek additional stimulation through repetition of behaviour, limited physical activity, and inadequate support/assistance from parents/teachers. There are various approaches that
teachers and schools can use to minimize stereotyped behaviour, one of which that is often used is self-management. To make self-management can run well with satisfactory results, it is necessary to support from school facilities, support from peers, and increase the awareness of teachers, parents and academics on the important role of self-management for them.
The findings of this study have important meaning for researchers, teachers, schools and future researchers. The results of the research in general have been able to identify the form, causes of stereotypic behaviour, inhibiting factors and supporting factors in efforts to minimize stereotypic behaviour. However, this research has a limited scope so it is possible to find other forms of stereotypic behaviour of the visually impaired. This research has not studied in depth the correlation between these factors. Therefore, it is hoped that further researchers can conduct research on the correlation between the forms of stereotypical behaviour, causes, barriers, and the necessary support.
CONCLUSSION
Based on the results and discussion, it can be concluded that the limited vision and stimulation of the visually impaired sense of sight can trigger the emergence of stereotypic behavior by using their own body for stimulation and activity. There are various forms of stereotypic behavior of the visually impaired because each child with visual impairment has different forms of initiation of behavior for stimulation and activity. It is clear, that this stereotypical behavior can hinder the learning process in schools. Therefore, teachers and schools can overcome the inhibiting aspects and increase the supporting aspects that have a positive impact on the success rate of self-management programs to minimize the stereotypical behavior of the visually impaired.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was able to run well thanks to the help of several parties. On this occasion, the research team would like to thank all members of the research team who have dedicated themselves during the research process and writing this article. Thanks are also conveyed to special schools for the visually impaired and inclusive schools that have students with visual impairment in Solo Raya area who have been willing to become partners in research activities that contribute to licensing, providing research sites, and providing input during the research process. Furthermore, thanks are also conveyed to the research assistant students who participated during the research data collection process.
This research can be carried out with the support of an adequate research budget, so we also thank the Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM) Sebelas Maret University (UNS) Surakarta which has provided funding support for this research.
REFERENCES
Anwar, M., Prakosha, D., Martika,T., Nastiti,I.2020. The Development of Anwar's Hole Braille System (AHOBS) for Students with Visual Impairment. The 4th International Conference on Learning Innovation and Quality Education (ICLIQE 2020), https://doi.org/10.1145/3452144.3452224. New York: ICPS ACM
Hallahan, Kauffman, & Pullen. (2014). Exceptional Learner An Introduction Special Education. USA:
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Okungu, P.A., Shirley,N.G., Pogrund, R.L. (2019) Accomodation Needs For Teacher Who are Blind and Teach Students with Visual Impairment. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness Vol 113 No. 3
Scholl, Geraldine T. 2003. Foundations of Educations for Blind and Visually Handicapped Children and Youth. USA: American Foundation for The Blind
Sutjihati, S. (2012). Psikologi Anak Luar Biasa. Bandung: Refika Aditama
Tarsidi,D .(2010). Dampak Ketunanetraan terhadap Perkembangan Keterampilan Sosial Anak.
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